Back in March, while having coffee with two good friends of mine, Alina Fekete and Violeta-Loredana Pascal, I first mentioned my idea of creating an online magazine for women that would be so much better than any other glossy magazine available on the Romanian market, pretending to know what women want and need. A magazine that would speak of career choices, successful women, real world relationships. A magazine for and with real women, the women beyond makeup and stereotypes.

Luckily, the jumped on board right then and there, and we started working on bringing our baby to life. It took us quite a while, the hardest part being to decide on a name. After a few failed tries, Alina Fekete who’s a designer suggested Cenuşă de trandafir, rose ashes. It’s the name of a colour, also called dusty pink. We loved the idea. Simply because complicated color names say women, but mostly because we loved the metaphor: purging through fire all the misconceptions, stereotypes and fake images on women. And then enjoying the real substance that’s left.

Cenuşă de trandafir was oficially launched last Tuesday. Mostly on Twitter and through word of mouth, from us to our friends, to their friends, to their friends. Based on the traffic, the number of comments, the retweets and the private messages, I’d say it was quite a success! And given the right amount of passion and hard work, plus some luck, it’s bound to keep growing.

Unfortunately, only my Romanian readers will be able to enjoy this new magazine. But since it means so much to me, I wanted to share the news with all of you! Good news are meant to be shared, hoping they’ll put a smile on the faces of those you care about

Two months ago I published a post about the switch PC Magazine made from print to fully digital. Two months later, I get an interesting email on LinkedIn from a friend who works for Business Review, a local magazine. Business Review will go digital as well, along with another two magazines in of the same publishing group.

To make their transition smoother and get more visitors to their websites and of course subscribers to their digital issues, the three magazines have started a campaign on Twitter and LinkedIn Groups. Seems like a good idea, but I have to wonder, wouldn’t it have been a lot more effective if they created the social media profiles before the switch, so that they’d have time to get more readers, followers and group members?

We can’t really tell, but at least having reporter profiles already online and their having quite a few connections did help. As for their shift from print to digital, it’s not really a surprise. Sales of copies and ads have decreased significantly everywhere. How many will follow this trend? I know for a fact Ziarul Financiar (daily business and financial newspaper) sells subscriptions that include both online and print editions. Will the rest of the Romanian papers follow? Will it be only those in Bucharest? What will happen to the local newspapers and magazines? Whatever the future holds, it’s an interesting field to watch!

Update

Apparently, they’re switching back to print starting March 1st…They thought about it, rendered some publishing costs more efficient, and are going back to print. Good news or bad, it tells a lot about what strategy means for Romanian print magazines of the BMG group!

This is the kind of news that makes all those predicting the end of print media go “Aha!”. Starting February 2009, we’ll have to say goodbye to the print version of PC Magazine. It will be changed into a digital format, with similar subscription options. I’m looking forward to see how advertising options will change, but even more curious to see how many of they readers switch from paper to downloadable format.

How did they announce it? Well, it’s all posted on their site, the CEO emailed their contacts and, just in case that email was lost among others, account managers also contacted their clients. From what my contact shared with me, before this move, a large part from the magazine’s income was generated by their digital branch. This leads me to believe the complete switch was a pretty smart move.

What do you think? Any predictions you’d like to share? Will other magazines follow the same pattern? Is this easier for a tech magazine? I’d love to read your thoughts.